mgwashburn

Happy to find this site.

We sit on a few acres of land only a couple of miles from the central gulf coast and used to have several species of Bananas (along with Bamboo, Bromeliads and other tropicals) planted in various locations on our property.

Sadly a few years ago a hard freeze took the Bananas out.

After finding this site, am excited to learn about the different Banana Species and make an attempt to replant a few varieties in my yard.

thank you,

Marc

HMelendez

Marc,



Welcome to the banana gang!....

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sputinc7

Welcome to the site. You can learn a lot here. Some bananas can take the cold a lot better than others, so search and learn.

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If you lose your head and give up, you neither live nor win.

https://sputinc7.wixsite.com/covwc

Varieties I supposedly bought: Manzano, Cavendish, Blue Java, Sweetheart, and Gros Michel.
What it seems I actually have: Brazilian, Cavendish, Namwah, Dwarf Red, Gros Michel, Pisang Ceylon, Veinte Cohol and SH 3640, and American Goldfinger. FHIA 1, Paggi and FHIA 17... Always room for one more.

Alastria

Welcome. It's good to see someone new nearby. I live around an hour drive north of you.

Worm_Farmer

Tarpon Springs?!?! GREAT!!
Now I have another reason to drive out there.
What do you need?

You have the best Pinball Arcade in the state of FL. Replay Amusement Museum!! They are getting some new games and iv been trying to talk the wife into another trip. Hahaha

sputinc7

Worm Farmer.. neighbor here in Palm Bay...I could use a certified GM corm or pup... :-D

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If you lose your head and give up, you neither live nor win.

https://sputinc7.wixsite.com/covwc

Varieties I supposedly bought: Manzano, Cavendish, Blue Java, Sweetheart, and Gros Michel.
What it seems I actually have: Brazilian, Cavendish, Namwah, Dwarf Red, Gros Michel, Pisang Ceylon, Veinte Cohol and SH 3640, and American Goldfinger. FHIA 1, Paggi and FHIA 17... Always room for one more.

cincinnana

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE....

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mgwashburn

LOl, I cannot believe all of the warm welcomes and how many of you are practically my neighbors.

I did a little bit of research and conclude that I had four species of bananas on my property at one time.

One was found at a dump, my cousin is a Biologist and works for USF (University of South Florida) and is somehow involved with the IFAS online Florida plant database. We were at the local dump together when he spotted a landscaper throwing out about five or six banana stalks. He grabbed them and threw them into the back of the trailer. I had no idea what they were as they were only the stalks and were missing their leaves.

We got home, stuck them in the ground and a year later we had our first producing Banana patch.

Sadly I did not educate myself enough so over time I purchased three other banana species to plant in other sections of our yard, but none of them produced and two of them were decorative dwarf varieties that did nothing for us.

I plan to spend some time learning about the types of producing species that do well here in Central Florida in the 9b zone that I am in and hope to replant once again. As I have four kids ranging from 5 months to 11 years old, I hope to make this a family project.

what is the best time of year to purchase pups or stalks and plant them in Florida? I assume that time is soon if not now?

Thank you for all of your support.

Alastria

*cough* If you do drive out to Tarpon Springs, drop me a PM and let me know? My parents took me there when I was a kid to see the sponge docks. I've been meaning to go back there for years, but I haven't had the chance. So who knows, maybe my husband and I could drive down to meet you two, and then we'd have four of us.

I've been wondering this, too. I started looking into bananas in February but everything said they wouldn't ship til April, so I only jumped on this bandwagon a few weeks ago. I know there's not much time left til the summer heat and daily storms start, so I've been wondering if there's a "shouldn't plant after [x] date" point I should be aware of.

In case this can help you any, the two pages I reference a lot are the Wiki's list of varieties here and Going Banana's list of plant descriptions here. When I come across a variety I want to learn about I pull up both of those pages, CTRL + F to bring up the search box, type in the name, and read from there. It usually gives me a good idea of cold hardiness, wind tolerance, height, what the fruit is like, etc.

merce3

Also glad to meet another local. I am right in between both of you in the trinity area of Pasco county. Maybe if we get enough locals we can arrange for a banana meet in the future

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merce3

It's hard to give a specific date with how wacky the weather is here, but generally it is good to plant when temps are above 50 at night and 70 during the day. You want to avoid cold damp roots so the native sand works great with a thick layer of mulch to act like a sponge. It will keep the ground moist but not too moist.

Hope this helps!

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Snarkie

Hi Marc-

Welcome to the Banana Express.

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Doug (D.A. Hänks) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2955582/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1


The Only Eastern Redwood Forest in America




"Nuke my 'nanners, will you?!"